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Estonia calls European countries: Double military spending!

Politiko 2022-11-29 09:55:25

Estonia calls European countries: Double military spending!

Estonia's foreign minister has called on other European countries to double their defense spending because of Russia's war in Ukraine, adding that his country planned to increase national defense spending to 3% of GDP. .

Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu made his comments in an interview during a visit to Kiev with six other foreign ministers from the Nordic and Baltic region: Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The trip was meant to show support for Kiev as it grapples with power outages following a wave of drone and missile attacks from Russia.

"We would like to see European countries double their defense spending during the war in Ukraine and after the war, and we will spend 3% of our GDP on national defense," he said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week that countries in the military alliance, of which Estonia is a member, may decide to aim to spend more on defense than their current target of 2% of national output.

Many NATO allies have already increased their military spending since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO but has applied to join the alliance, has increasingly called for support from its Western allies since Russia stepped up its missile attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. .

Reinsalu said the 27-nation European Union, which includes Estonia, should also increase the level of funding it allocates to military support for Ukraine.

"The European Union combined has supported around 0.2% of its GDP on military aid to Ukraine and I pledged that if we could get to 1% it would make a huge difference on the ground in turning the tide of the war," he said. .

Source: Euronews

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